Are you completely over the whole ‘fundamentalist religion vs militant atheism’ scene? Do you embrace the tools of science, but love to speculate on what could possibly be. Of course you do, you’re a regular visitor to The Daily Grail. Well then, my friend, you may just be a ‘Possibilian’.
Here’s neuroscientist and author Dr David Eagleman discussing the philosophical stance he calls ‘Possibilianism’:
Sure, you could say that Eagleman writes off psi from his list of possibles a bit too quickly. You could also argue that not everything explanatory has to be about objective scientific fact (for example, Eagleman’s apparent assumption that creation myths of various cultures are solely a ‘best guess’ about how things actually happened). But I don’t mind this Possibilian crowd at all, they seem like my type of people. Just as long as I don’t have to sign away my life savings and drink some Kool-Aid, I’m in!
By the way, if Eagleman’s name rings a bell, it may be because we’ve mentioned some of his research previously – he’s the neuroscientist who tried to figure out if the ‘time dilation’ experienced during a near-death experience allowed real-world slow-motion recall. He’s also the author of Sum: Forty Tales of the Afterlives (Amazon US and UK).
And if that pose he’s striking in the still-frame to the video is anything to go by, he’s got the whole ‘starting a new religion’ thing down to a fine art…
